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Comments from “Plugged-In” Readers

A few take-aways / observations. The contrarian in me thinks maybe all this publicity is signaling the bottom, but probably not. I do think that 2011 and maybe early 2012 will have flushed out the market a bit.
Riholtz’s observation about inflation it the real killer / problem over the next 10 years. 3% seems like the magic #.Quote:After reaching bottom, prices will gain at the historic annual pace of 3 percent, requiring more than 10 years to return to their peak, he said.
Also, the national inventory level is at a record 12.5 months. Considering SF is somewhere around ~4 (a guess since we don’t have an official number it seems that we’re in a much better, although not altogether rosy, position relative to the rest of the country.
I’m not saying SF RE is a good investment (especially not in condos), but if I HAD to invest in SF RE I would feel much better about putting it here, or in NYC or some other metro area than just about anywhere else.
Lastly, I’ll add that a remodeled SFH on Washington St in PH just sold in 12 days at what I will assume will be near peak pricing. Crazy.

“Considering SF is somewhere around ~4 (a guess since we don’t have an official number ;)”
I’ve given a July ’10 number of 4 months (up from 2.9 months in July ’09). Waiting for DataQuick to publish Bay Area stats for August, maybe tomorrow.
Personally, I would be more interested in how SF’s historical and YOY numbers compare to now, rather than SF vs. national. I think DQ makes you pay for older reports, or I’d consider calculating it.